MEXICO…THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM…IT’S ABOUT TO GET REAL!!!

I just returned from all three lakes (Comedero, El Salto and Picachos)…and I can tell you that my excitement level is higher going into this fishing season than in recent years! I truly believe we’re about to experience another phenomenal year of fishing at all three lakes! Also, we’ve added so many new things at a couple of the lakes and that has me REALLY excited! More on that later.

With high water levels, Xpress boats are parked right near the restaurant with easy access into the boats.

LAKE PICACHOS has caught the most rain and runoff during the summer monsoon season and has been totally full for over a month. At the time of this writing, the water is still running over the dam. The camp is beautiful with the water now right up to our beautiful HUGE restaurant… which means our awesome Xpress boats are parked right near the restaurant with easy access into the boats. This should remain this way until after the first of the year and maybe even into February. The lake is teeming with thousands of bass in shallow water right now… mostly feeding on the vast amount of bait fish that have migrated to the shallows to feed on the algae growing on the lush green grass submerged along the shoreline.

Our Xpress boats, all geared up for your best experience in the coming “storm”

The purpose of my recent trip was to help get everything ready for the upcoming season at all 3 lakes/camps to include the bass boats. I took my good friend Terry Oldham and another friend, Jacky Roberts. Our first stop was at Picachos… mainly repairing trolling motors and adding new parts to insure all equipment is like new and working properly when the season begins. Oldham and Jacky went out one afternoon late for fishing and while they didn’t set the world on fire (rainy season is generally not the best time for fishing), they did catch enough in a short period of time to know the pattern was “shallow” and best lure was topwater. Later that night, we spoke with some local bass fishermen that were there for only two days of fishing. They informed me that their best fishing was in the afternoon and that afternoon they had caught 62 bass on topwater in the final two hours of fishing with the largest weighing 6 lbs… the rest were mostly 2 – 4 1/2 lbs.

Our lodge and restaurant is absolutely beautiful and offers a breathtaking view of the main lake. I love being there this time of year with the lake being totally full with water and everything is green. It is like being in the Amazon Jungle… with mountains added. Just simply beautiful.

It’s like being in the Amazon, but with mountains added!

If history plays out on Picachos as I’ve seen it on all or most western Mexico bass lakes of the past 30 years, this coming season should be the year we see the biggest jump in the overall size of the bass thus far. Operating on 4 different lakes over the past 30 years, I’ve always seen the most significant increase in size during year 4. Well, this will begin the 4th year on Picachos and we’re going to find out soon. One thing we already know for certain is that there are BIG bass in this lake with the lake record still sitting at 12 lbs, 14 oz… at least to our knowledge that is the largest officially weighed. That bass was caught 2 years ago by one of our valuable customers. However, there have been 3 other bass landed in excess of 12 lbs as well. We’ve also weighed at least a dozen or more bass in excess of 10 lbs caught by our customers. Legendary Pro Angler and TV fishing personality Jimmy Houston landed two bass of 11 and 12 lbs while filming at Picachos in June of 2014. So we know there are some really huge bass in the lake but we’ve been waiting for the numbers of big bass to show up on customers’ lures. As I’ve stated many times in past updates, I do not believe that will happen on a consistent basis until the overall daily numbers of smaller bass decline some. Again, on past lakes I’ve operated on and fished, that was usually in Year 4. Buckle up folks, because I believe we’re about to experience a big bass explosion in Picachos! At the very least, I believe you’ll see the overall average size increase dramatically. We’re about to find out. One thing is for certain, you will not fish a bass lake with more action/numbers than Picachos and this coming season you could very well have the best of both worlds… both numbers and some trophy bass! If/when that happens, that’s the most fun years of a lake… that in between time where you can get BOTH!

There is a reason why El Salto is still one of the more popular bass lakes in the world.

LAKE EL SALTO… our second stop during our recent 3 lake tour. While we did not have time to wet a hook while at El Salto due to working night and day adding the new trolling motors on the 18′ Xpress boats, there’s no question in my mind that we’re going to see another great fishing season… as always. It’s just money in the bank when describing the fishing at El Salto. It’s consistent. There is a reason why El Salto is still one of the more popular bass lakes in the world after 27 years since it opened! It’s just steady good! Good to great numbers and a lot of bass from 7 – 10 lbs! The water level, unlike at Picachos, has not reached full status… yet. While at El Salto, the water level was rising and at around 60%. However, our last day in Mazatlan saw a tropical depression arrive and it rained very hard at all three lakes and was sure to bring the water level up in El Salto. Unless we have another hurricane or tropical storm hit the area, I predict El Salto will fill to approximately 70%. Could be a little more, could be a little less… but that lake ALWAYS fishes better when it doesn’t totally fill up. My hope every year during the monsoon season is that these lakes reach at least 70% to start the fall fishing season and it looks good right now for that to happen.

Summer monsoons at the mountain lakes in Mexico set us up for beautiful fall/winter conditions and great fishing.

Now about the new trolling motors at El Salto…. Not only have we added new Minn Kota 65 lbs thrust, 24 volt trollers to each Xpress boat, we’ve also added new sonars: Lowrance Hook 5 with Down Scan imaging. We realize a certain percentage of our customers will not have a desire to run their own trolling motor nor rely on the sonar, and simply rely on their guide to put them on schools of fish. However, for you diehard anglers that do prefer to run your own troller and monitor a sonar for reading bottom, depth, ledges and various structure, well now you’ll have these new toys at your disposal. We already have similar toys at Picachos and Comedero. Now we offer them at ALL THREE LAKES! We continue to lead the way with the finest facilities, boats & equipment, food, service and of course, EXPERIENCE.

You’ll love our equipment upgrades

LAKE COMEDERO…oh boy! Where do I start? For starters, let me go on record to say that we did not travel to Comedero to do any fishing, at least not this trip. However, if you’ve read my recent updates for the past year or so, do you honestly believe that I could go to this lake and NOT WET A HOOK? IM…POSSIBLE! You would have to literally get 5 strong guys to hold me down and put a straight jacket on me to keep me from fishing this lake if I’m within 50 miles! IT’S THAT GOOD! More on the fishing in a bit….

Dave Thompson making his 1st trip to Comedero, lands this 10lb beauty!!!!!

Terry, Jacky and I arrived at Comedero from El Salto on a Saturday afternoon. We had 2 1/2 days to finish rigging the two newly-added Xpress Boats! We’ve added 2 new Xpress Boats as we’re increasing capacity at the camp this coming season due to the major demand and space filling up a year in advance! We’ve also made huge upgrades in the main facilities (main houses and restaurant) that I believe will have our customers smiling BIG, BIG, BIG! In addition to those main houses, we’ve also restored our other houses that we haven’t used in over 10 years, so all of our Comedero customers can have the option to stay at the camp after the last day of fishing. This will certainly bring a smile to our customers’ faces as many do not wish to travel back to Mazatlan after fishing all day. Now we can comfortably accommodate up to 32 anglers at a time, and fishing a maximum of 16 per day. All of our bass boats are Xpress boats equipped with 80 lbs thrust Minn Kota trolling motors, Lowrance 7″ sonars with Down Scan imaging up front and 3″ Hummingbird sonars on the console. Everything a diehard anglers needs for having the best opportunity at catching some giant bass… and yes, Comedero has GIANT BASS! Many who have fished the lake recently believe the same as I do… that Comedero is by far the best trophy bass lake in the world!

Now on to the fishing and the numbers of giant bass in that lake. Again, we were not there primarily to fish Comedero this trip, but rather rig the new boats. Still, I had our manager Jorge see that we had a couple of boats in the water, just in case we got that “itch” to go wet a hook. Well, we arrived the camp at Comedero (from El Salto) approximately 3 pm on a Saturday afternoon. We needed to get our work on the new boats done by the end of the day on Monday as we were flying home on Tuesday. After we arrived the camp, I asked Oldham and Jacky if they wanted to go fish that afternoon and start working the next morning? Oldham chuckled and said, “Uh, twist my arm?” I took that as a firm YES! After we got a bite to eat and then got our rods/reels and tackle together, we headed down to the boats around 4:30 pm. I was going to be fishing alone and Oldham/Jacky would fish together. Jacky had never fished Comedero until this afternoon. Oldham decided he wanted the two boats to fish in close proximity of each other in case one of us got a really giant and take photos. I instructed Oldham to follow me as I wanted to put Jacky on some bigguns and I had been to Comedero more recently (end of June) than Oldham. I put them on a point, well… it was actually a point with an island in front of it that had a big “swag” or “saddle” between the two. I told them I was heading over to the next point about 300 yards away. By the time I stopped on that next point and killed the motor, I could hear hollering and saw some “High Fives” taking place in their boat. I didn’t know who caught the biggun or what it weighed, but it was sure to have been a large bass. Later I would find out that it was an 8 lbs bass caught by Jacky. Duh, Oldham doesn’t holler and high five on 8 pounders, especially on Comedero because that’s just another bass to him… ON COMEDERO! Anyway, I made my way to the front deck of the boat and grabbed my…..??? Did you think I grabbed a rod with a spinner bait tied on? Ummm…you would be CORRECTAMUNDO! I stopped short of this long point with deep water access on both sides of the ledge. I positioned the boat so I could cast a long distance across the point and ledge… then let that 1 oz Oldham spinner bait go down until it hit brush tops… then start slowly dragging (and take up the slack) through that brush… continuously bumping that huge gold # 7 willow blade into those tops. On my second cast, SHAZAAM! One biggun loaded up on my spinner bait, knocking 2 – 3 foot of slack in my line. I made a thunderous hook set and my 8′ Dobyns rod just about doubled over! Oh yeah… yeah baby, this is a classic Comedero big girl on spinner bait. LOVE IT! After a minute or so of battling this biggun, I landed her and put her on the scales. A 9 lbs, 10 oz beauty! This on my SECOND CAST of the afternoon! Not a bad way to start! I tossed back across the ledge and made another long cast with that spinner bait. Just almost the same exact location and BAM, another load up and knocked slack in my line… but I could feel the weight of this bass and it wasn’t close to the size of the 9 pounder. It was a solid but not huge… only weighed 5 lbs. For the next 10 minutes, I made 7 casts, and caught 5 bass… and not one bass weighed under 5 lbs! Then right at about 15 minutes of fishing this awesome point/ledge, I hit pay dirt! LOAD UP, BAM, SLACK KNOCKED IN LINE… BOOM! This was another big girl. As she appeared near the surface, and like so many times in the past, I could see a half a dozen or more big bass swarming around her trying to take that spinner bait away from her. She was huge… but not sure if she would top that previous 9 lbs hog I caught 15 minutes prior? After a solid battle, I got her in the boat and put on the scales…A 10.2 LBS TOAD!!!!

Fishing good enough to keep the masters glued to one spot for hours!

For the next 2 hours, I would fish only two points… the point I started on and the next one just inside or around that point about 100 yards. I would land a total of 32 bass that afternoon while fishing alone. Of the 32 bass, I only caught 8 under 5 lbs and my five biggest bass were 10.2, 9.10, 8.8, 8.0 and 7.12. I also landed 3 others in the low 7 lbs range and the rest were 5’s and 6’s… exception being the 8 bass under 5 lbs. It was starting to get dark and I decided to call it a day. I cranked the motor and headed over to the point/island where I had last seen Oldham and Jacky. They were on the backside of the island and almost back to where they started. I drove up and killed the motor… and waited for a thumbs up or down. There was silence for almost 30 seconds. Finally I could not resist and asked how they were doing? Oldham chuckled without saying anything, but Jacky spoke up and said, “This is the best bass lake I’ve ever fished! You just wait until I get home and call all my fishing buds!” Then Oldham said, “You left us here on this side of this island 2 1/2 hours ago and we’re just now finishing our one time of fishing around this island.” I guess that meant the fishing was pretty good because Oldham won’t stay very long on one spot if he’s not catching. Turns out it was more than just “pretty good” as they both claimed to have caught a ton of 7 and 8 lbs bass, with one bass of 9 lbs! Both were using Oldham spinner baits and jigs. To say Jacky was happy and impressed with Comedero would be a huge understatement.

That next day/morning the work would begin and fun of fishing Comedero would be put on hold. Sunday afternoon we decided we had pretty much done enough work on rigging the new boats and we could “force” ourselves to fish Comedero one more time. Once again, it was just insane on the fishing. Spinner baits, jigs and even some late afternoon topwater… well, until the lightning from the monsoon rains ran us off the lake. Still, it was just another day at the office on fabulous Lake Comedero. There’s just not really much more to say about it than what’s already been mentioned. Just know: it’s UNBELIEVABLE! No other trophy bass lake compares! It not only has great numbers of 7 – 10 lbs bass but MUCH BIGGER than 10 lbs! The lake record is still holding at 19 lbs with a couple of 17 and 18 lbs bass also landed in the past. I do believe if the longtime existing world record is ever broken, it could very well happen at Lake Comedero. The condition of the lake (size, depth, no pressure and food) and genetics of the bass cause me to believe it could happen. Come experience this great lake for yourself…while it’s HOT!

That’s right folks, Ron Speed Jr’s Adventures now offers it’s valuable customers the Strike King Rage Craw in THE #1 COLOR! You cannot buy this color anywhere else but through RSJA! Why? Because Strike King is currently not in production with this particular color. However, I believe the color to be the very best in soft plastic lures on lakes in western Mexico. There are a number of reasons why I believe it to be the very best color for soft plastics when used as jig trailers, spinner bait trailers and also fished Texas and Carolina rig. That is, we only have our camps open for fishing on Comedero, El Salto and Picachos during the dry season, and the water clarity during those months on these lakes is perfect for fishing this particular color. Also with the bait fish in these three lakes, this is a color the bass absolutely LOVE! You will not fish a better color in terms of consistent action! Also, I believe Rage Tail’s Rage Craw by Strike King is the very best soft plastic on the market. Again, you can fish the Rage Craw so many different ways! The bass can’t resist the RAGE CRAW! Now you can fish the Rage Craw in the very best color at any of our three lakes, provided you are currently booked with RSJA and deposit paid. These will go very quickly so call us SOON to place your order! Thanks to our dear friends at Strike King and Rage Tail for making this happen for us, AND ESPECIALLY FOR YOU! Call us TODAY to place your order!!!

Our fishing season begins this week in Mexico, at least at El Salto and Picachos. We will open at Lake Comedero later this fall once all of the construction and upgrades of the facilities are completed. We will have new season fishing reports coming soon. Again, I believe this will be another banner year on the fishing at all three lakes as we’ve seen in recent years. It is time for you to book your trip NOW if you haven’t already done so. Flights are the main issue with seats filling fast on the smaller American Airlines planes to Mazatlan. That is not to mention space at our three lodges is also filling up fast. Many dates are already gone (full) but we still have “some” available. CALL US TODAY!

Check Out a New Foundation Set up by Dear Friends

Please click on the image below to learn about a charitable foundation created by our good friends Drew Daniel and Wendy Brackney Daniel. Good hearted people doing a good deed for those in need.